Real estate agent charged in mortgage scam
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
June 30, 2009
A D.C.-area real estate salesman already disciplined for lying about his properties was charged in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud by repeatedly selling properties to unqualified buyers and keeping the proceeds of the sale for himself, then getting the property back and selling it again, according to documents filed in federal court.
From 2004 to 2007, Mark D. Blunt "churned through" at least six properties, including his own million-dollar home, by "tricking" banks into loaning hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who could not afford them, prosecutors said. Blunt and his co-conspirators created forged documents, lied on applications and employed an appraiser to falsely inflate the value of the properties, prosecutors said.
Blunt would make tens of thousands of dollars on the transaction; and then on the day of the sale, the buyer would transfer the property back to Blunt who would resell the property without the lenders' knowledge.
Banks lost more than $1 million before the scam was discovered, prosecutors said.
Blunt by was charged by "criminal information," an indication that a plea agreement has been worked out, because a person can be charged by information only if he or she waives the right to have a grand jury hear the evidence. No plea hearing has been scheduled.
In one of the schemes, Blunt used his own home at 3308 Shortridge Lane, in Bowie, according to court documents and property records. Blunt sold the property for $1.5 million to friend in 2004, but continued to living there. Blunt helped the friend obtain the mortgage using false statements and forged documents, and the mortgage quickly fell into default.
In 2005, shortly before the foreclosure was finalized on the Shortridge property, the home was sold to Blunt's relative for $1.8 million. The family member forged documents verifying the assets she owned and lying about her job employment and income. Blunt continued living in the property, and that mortgage also fell into default.
As the Shortridge property went into final foreclosure, it was sold to a third person, this time for $2.3 million, making it the seventh-most-expensive home sale in the greater D.C. region that week, according to the American City Business Leads.
Blunt continued to live in the home, but it is now in the process of being foreclosed, prosecutors said. He could not be reached for comment.
This is not the first time that Blunt has gotten into trouble for hinky real estate transaction. In 2005, the Maryland Real Estate Commission fined him $35,000 in two separate complaints for making multiple false statements and failing to return deposit money to the buyers and brokers.
